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Lawyers have claimed that the latest ruling in Ariosa Diagnostics v Sequenom creates an “existential threat” to biomedical patents in the US, but is this really the case? LSIPR investigates.

There could be dire consequences for biomedicine and patent law as a whole—that’s one view of the latest ruling in Ariosa Diagnostics v Sequenom, which has sent shock waves through some sections of the US life sciences industry.

According to lawyers representing Sequenom, the molecular technology company whose patent was revoked in the case, the ruling creates an “existential threat” to patent protection for an array of meritorious inventions.

On June 12, a three-judge panel at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed that the patent, which protects a non-invasive method of testing a mother’s blood for genetic traits in her foetus, was invalid.

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